Page 234 of Scarlet Wars
“Don’t push it,” she warned.
Rachel pinched the bridge of her nose. “Babe, I loveyou. Please hold off on threatening the woman who’s been through enough trauma to fuel a five-season TV-show drama.”
Hillary huffed, but the territorial glare softened. Slightly. “Fine. But future hugging requires a consent form. Signed by me.”
“A what?” I asked.
Rachel muttered, “Ignore her.”
Hillary pointed at me two-fingered, like she was marking her next confirmed kill.
“She’s mine. Not in the fun way. In thetouch her wrong and I’ll end your bloodlineway.”
I smiled. “Thank fuck my whole bloodline’s already gone, then.”
Hillary paused before snorting. “Gods. That was dark even for me.”
Rachel groaned into her palms, and I chuckled.
Hillary’s smile had barely twitched into existence when Rachel’s Nexus flared—hard.
A violent surge of blue drops shot up from the device, crackling like static chewing through metal.
Hillary’s hands immediately flew to her hips. “If that’s another woman nexing you?—"
“It’s Cara,” Rachel snapped, already reaching into the shimmering thread of her Nexus link. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of her for the last few days.”
Hillary’s eyebrows climbed so high they nearly exited her forehead. “Your sister Cara? The one who ghosted you for?—”
“A decade,” Rachel cut in. “Yes. Her.”
The whole room washed blue as the latter accepted the connection.
A floating translucent panel snapped into existence, projecting Cara’s face: hair scraped back, eyes wild and unamused, mouth already set in a hard line.
“Why have you been stalking me every five damn seconds after a lifetime of radio silence?” Cara demanded before Rachel could even open her mouth.
Rachel didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink. Didn’t evenshifther breathing.
“I’m not interested in your inadequate emotional responses,” she replied, cool as frostbite. “I have need for your knowledge of the person behind the bubble. And if you’d care to elaborate on your experience with the Collaborators, that would be much appreciated as well.”
Cara blinked once.
Then burst out laughing.
Loud. Unhinged. Echoing off the reinforced walls like she’d just heard the funniest shit of her life.
“My experience with Collabs?” she repeated, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. “Well. Your timing is fucking impeccable. Why don’t I show you?”
The screen expanded with a flick of her fingers, ballooning outward until it swallowed half the room, and thesmellhit us instantly.
A thick, wet stench of blood.
Antiseptic.
Rotting bodily fluids baked into concrete.
And underneath it all, the panicked sweat of people who had been terrified for far too long.
